There’s a lot to catch up on, in this and other threads.
It takes 2-3 years to rebuild a team: It took Ross that long. It took O’Leary about that much time. Coaches that do turn around a program, usually do it faster—if you don’t see something by year 2, you’re usually not going to see the turnaround happen.
Other coaches would have turned us around faster: Fritz spent years turning around Tulane. As much as I like what he’s accomplished, I don’t think he’d have come in, flipped the roster, and brought us to 8 wins in the first season. I think our odds of getting into a 6-win bowl game would be a little higher. I don’t think he loses to Bowling Green, but I don’t know that he beats Miami.
Deion Sanders and Colorado: I think we’d have the same roster Colorado has right now—the players he got wanted to play for Deion. Most of the roster was replaced, and would have been replaced here. Colorado is 4-3 right now. They have problems on defense. He’s played a hard schedule, but he’d also have a hard schedule here. He just edged out Arizona State. Our QB would be Shadeur (sp) Sanders, who has had some of the same issues that King has had. I can see us being 5-2 with Sanders, but I can also see us with the same record. HOWEVER, as of last week, Colorado was behind us in F+ and other ratings, so there’s reason to believe we might be even weaker (believe it or not).
One thing is clear—Sanders turned over the roster in year one, and he looks to be doing it again after this year.
Chadwell: He’s having a great run at Liberty, but they were already stocked, more talented than their opponents, and set up against one of the weakest schedules available. It’s tough to tell, but I think we’d be exciting on offense, but with some of the same problems.
One thing I think is different is that we’d have had more roster turnover in year one. Assuming that’s needed, the roster would have turned over faster.
Defense: We’ve been playing a 4-2-5 for years. Most teams play a 4-2-5 these days. Some play a 3-3-5. It’s what we used to call a “Nickel Defense”, or close to it. There’s no such thing as a “Front 7” in this defense—just a “Front 6”. It’s an outgrowth of competing against RPO offenses (and maybe a little against air raid).
Everyone on the defense has to go full speed, and make their reads instantly. You can’t hesitate in a 4-2-5.
We’ve had multiple defensive problems for years, especially slow reactions. We’re also losing 1:1 battles on the front 6.
(By the way, I’ve been happy with Harvey at CB)
When you have a bunch to fix, you have to pick your priorities. Lately, we’re focusing on making tackles and getting off blocks. We’re still practicing our assignments, but we seem to be more focused on making tackles. When you have a ton of problems to solve, it’s slow.
